English Garden Toasts – The Perfect Spring Appetizer

Food Entertaining

March 26, 2019

The House Magazine

An overhead photo of four white, antique plates with French bread toasts topped with peas, herbs, sliced red onions and radishes.

This post was created in partnership with ABRAMS Books, as a part of the ABRAMS Dinner Party.

Well, I have a few new obsessions. The spring line up of ABRAMS cookbooks has me gitty–starting with today’s release of A Modern Cook’s Year. As someone who loves entertaining, this is an exciting addition to my kitchen. Anna Jones illustrates amazing ways to play with seasonal vegetarian ingredients, how to put them together in different ways, with bits of entertaining tips throughout. After spending a few hours flipping through, page by page, I marked handfuls of inspiring Spring recipes. To start, I went with the English Garden Toasts.

The simplicity of the ingredients and the inventive ways the flavors are treated make this book a must have, and this recipe is proof. I was excited to roast the radishes. Raw slices are known for their bite, but the roasted variation is toned down, allowing it to mix well with the other elements of the toast. Next comes a smear of goat cheese, citrus pickled red onion, podded fresh peas with lemon zest and mint, and chives. So easy, so unique. I think I might bring it to our next dinner party.

A few of our favorite recipes from the book:

Easter egg and spring veg tart. Double lime, cashew, and ginger stir-fry. Rhubarb and rose frozen yogurt. Seeded spinach breakfast waffles. Lemon and fennel seed pizzaettes. Peach and cardamom tart.

A close up view of toasted French bread topped with peas, herbs, sliced red onions and radishes.
A close up overhead photo of four white, antique plates with French bread toasts topped with peas, herbs, sliced red onions and radishes.

More about the cookbook. It’s divided into six gorgeous, seasonal sections – Start of the Year, Herald of Spring, First Warm Days, Summer, Autumn and Winter. As someone who lives in an area that doesn’t experience long seasons, I love to use food to bring them to life for our family. That being said, having a book like this also helps me plan for our garden. Inspiring recipes are my favorite to organize my thoughts on what to grow.

Useful how-to pages are sprinkled throughout the book as well, including cold remedies, juicing, using less plastic, herbal infusions, growing edible flowers and holiday wreath making. You’ll also run into [my favorite] bright yellow pages where key ingredients are organized into columns for the cook to pick and choose from in order to create their own version of a hearty salad, flatbread, fritter, or roasting pan dinner. It’s a refreshing reminder to veer away from recipes every once in awhile to create something of your own.

A Modern Cook’s Year is released everywhere in the US today – grab your copy here or at any bookstore! And try the toast. Seriously.

An angled, close up view of four white, antique plates with French bread toasts topped with peas, herbs, sliced red onions and radishes.
An overhead photo of four white, antique plates with French bread toasts topped with peas, herbs, sliced red onions and radishes.